????哈佛和大多數一流商學院一樣，多年來一直希望MBA申請者至少應該具備一定的工作經驗。從十年前開始，哈佛商學院就已經停止了招收完全沒有工作經驗的本科畢業(yè)生。但利奧波德稱，為此哈佛損失了太多優(yōu)秀的申請者，因為希望早日完成學業(yè)的學生們都申請去了法學院、公共政策學院和博士生項目。2+2計劃是“走進本科校園，匯聚學生人氣”的一種方式。利奧波德稱：“然后我們可以談談MBA學位，它不只是打開一扇門，而是讓很多門都保持開啟狀態(tài)。我們不想讓你現在就入學。但不妨從現在就開始考慮考慮？”

????哈佛商學院最希望通過2+2計劃吸引“科技、工程和數學專業(yè)的學生。他們不太懂商業(yè)，但最終仍會從商，并且有所建樹，因為他們知道如何做事，如何制造，如何思考。”利奧波德稱，哈佛可以在這個基礎之上傳授商業(yè)技能，合作技巧和說服藝術。“有點像既會反手，又會正手。”

????利奧波德和她的同事們每年到訪約60家本科學校，宣講2+2計劃，有些學校傳統(tǒng)上并非不是哈佛的生源地。（“我們喜歡位于密歇根州弗林特的凱特林大學（Kettering），”即前通用汽車學院（General Motors Institute），以工程學院和合作項目著稱）如果說有什么問題的話，那就是這個項目近年來太成功了，產生了利奧波德稱為“松鼠鉆進喂鳥器”的現象，也就是喧賓奪主的問題。

????被利奧波德比作“松鼠”的是“那些還在娘胎里就知道自己將來希望成為投資銀行家的人”，他們把2+2計劃視為捷徑。倒不是利奧波德對投資銀行家有什么看法。（“我有一些最慷慨、最友善的同學就在華爾街工作。因此，我絕不會，你明白的……”）利奧波德說，只是松鼠雖然很可愛，但卻具有一定侵略性，它們最終擠走了鳥兒。接著，她講了另一個故事。

????“故事發(fā)生在招生辦公室的樓下，”利奧波德說。“當時所有人都在樓下集合，個個都很緊張。他們在想，招生辦公樓簡直比牙醫(yī)診所還可怕。我下樓叫一個人，帶她上樓面試。遠遠地，我看到這位年輕姑娘在樓梯半道停住了。她說：‘稍等，我得下樓一趟。’她說，她剛才告訴坐在她旁邊的人，到了3點鐘就應該自己上樓去面試。“我必須得和他們說一聲，不是這么回事，到時候會有人帶我們上樓。”

????“這些事情真的會觸動我，”利奧波德說。“這么年輕，在全力投入一件事的時候還能夠想到別人，真的很了不起。”錄取！

????譯者：老榆木

????Like most top-tier B-schools, Harvard has long preferred that its MBA candidates arrive with at least some job experience. It stopped accepting students straight out of college a decade ago. But according to Leopold, Harvard was losing too many fast-track candidates to law schools, public policy schools, and Ph.D. programs. The 2+2 option was conceived as a way to "get on a college campus and attract a crowd," Leopold says. "We could then talk about this degree that doesn't open one door, it keeps many doors open. We don't want you to come now. But what if you think about it now?"

????The students Harvard wants to attract most through 2+2 are "STEM people -- science, technology, engineering and math. People that don't know a lot about business, but they're going to end up in business, and they're going to be really good at it because they know how to do things, make things, think through things." Start with that, Leopold says, add what Harvard can teach -- business know-how, collaborative skills, the art of persuasion --and "it's like having a backhand and a forehand."

????Leopold and her colleagues promote 2+2 with visits to about 60 college campuses a year, not all of them traditional Harvard feeder schools. ("We love Kettering in Flint," the former General Motors Institute, known for its engineering school and co-op program) If anything, the program has been too successful in recent years, giving rise to a predicament Leopold describes as "squirrels at the bird feeder."

????The squirrels in Leopold's analogy are "people who've known they want to be investment bankers since they were in diapers," and see 2+2 as a shortcut. Not that Leopold has a problem with investment bankers. ("Some of the most generous and kind classmates I have are on Wall Street. Therefore I would never, you know, geez….") It's just that, well, cute as they are, squirrels are aggressive, Leopold says. They crowd out the songbirds. Then she tells one more story.

????"It happened downstairs in the admission office," Leopold says. "Everybody congregates down there. They're all nervous. They're all thinking this is worse than the dentist's office. I go down to pick someone up and bring her upstairs for an interview. And this other young woman I was watching from a distance, she stops halfway up the stairs and says, 'Wait, I need to go back downstairs.' She had told the person sitting next to her that she should just go up the stairs at 3:00. She said, 'I have to tell them no, someone will come and get you.'

????"Those are the things that really get me," says Leopold. "Wow, when you're so young and self-absorbed and you can already think about somebody else, that's, like, really beautiful." Accept!